Critical Appreciation of Space-Time Continuum

Introduction

Space-time Continuum is a poem by Vinayak Krishna Gokak. It is based on Indian Mythology. Poem is based on the event when lord Shiva is doing his cosmic dance and goddess Parvati is watching him with surprise.

Central Idea

The main idea of the poem is to show effect of the cosmic dance of lord Shiva. When he started dancing speed of the time and space increased immensely. It was like creation and destruction was happening simultaneously. During dancing Shiva and Parvati saw each other and they realised their love for each other and a new androgynic god named Ardhnarishwar came into form.

Themes

1. Unity of Opposites – Poem presented Ardhnarishwar form of lord Shiva and goddess Parvati. This form symbolises unity of opposites i.e. male and female. When such unity happens a harmony is established in the universe. The disturbance created by cosmic dance of Shiva stopped after this Ardhnarishwar form.
2. Creation and Destruction – Another significant theme of the poem is creation and destruction of the world is happening very fast. The dance of Shiva brings such effect on the universe when time and space become significantly fast.

Figure of Speech

1. Alliteration – ‘successive sound’, has repetition of consonant sound /s/ hence it’s an instance of alliteration.
2. Assonance – ‘ever revolving earth’ has repetition of /a/ vowel sound hence it is assonance.
3. Simile – Gestures of Shiva’s eyes and limbs are compared to thunder and lightening in the sky which is a clear example of simile.
4. Enjambment – It is device in which a sentence is continuing in more than one line of poem. For instance – Parvati watched entranced / And grew older every minute / Towards a dooms day / That dogged her steps. These four lines of poem are actually one single sentence of English.

Background of Indian Mythology

It is said that Shiva did dance seven times and one of those was cosmic dance in which creation and destruction of the world happened simultaneously. The poem is actually portraying that event.

Structure and Rhyme scheme

Poem doesn’t have any particular structure. It also doesn’t have any rhyme scheme.

For more posts on Indian writers click here

Copyright Our Guruji 2024. All Rights Reserved.